It is known to clean rollers and other meat-processing equipment by the use of mechanical means such as brushes, blades and the like. In certain types of meat-processing equipment where rollers with teeth or cavities are used, meat portions, including fat or bone particles, become lodged in the indentations of the rollers. When it is necessary to move the meat product such as the hide or skin, a gear-like roller with teeth along its entire tubular length is generally used. This type roller is not effective for gripping the skin and moving it during derinding or other processing steps. The roller, to remain effective with its intended biting action, and to remain sanitary, must be cleaned. One of the earliest methods of cleaning, and one used today, is positioning a brush along the entire peripheral portion of the roller, and when cleaning of the roller is desired, the brush is shifted in contact with the teeth-containing cylindrical surface of the roller. The bristles from the brush spring into the crevices or teeth depresions and flick the foreign meat substances out.
A second and more effective way to clean these rollers is by the use of air jets that because of their fluid pressure can enter these crevices and wash or blow away these unwanted particles. The method of the prior art presently used is to position a movable cylinder (or other device) adjacent the roller to be cleaned. The cylinder contains jets or nozzles through which air is impelled to contact the roller to be cleaned. The cylinder moves laterally along the entire outer portion or periphery of the teeth-containing roller in order to reach all external parts and crevices of the roller. By the use of gas or compressed air supplied from an air source, and axial movement of the cylinder and nozzles along the periphery of the roller, an effective cleaning method is utilized. In this type system, however, two separate and distinct air networks are used; one to induce the lateral movement of the cylinder back and forth along the periphery of the teeth-containing roller, and a second air network to feed and force the compressed air through the air nozzles used to clean. While this air jet method is effective, it has also been found to be expensive because of the high consumption of air through the use of these two air sources.
There is a need for a gas or an air jet cleaning system that is as effective as the prior used system but substantially less expensive.